Henry Fielding Quotes

“The only source of the true Ridiculous (as it appears to me) is affectation”

“It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good.”

“I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.”

“Love and scandal are the best sweeteneers of tea.”

“Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of.”

“A good face, they say, is a letter of recommendation. O Nature, Nature, why art thou so dishonest, as ever to send men with these false recommendations into the World?”

“In reality, the world have payed too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them men of much greater profundity than they really are.”

“Men who pay for what they eat will insist on gratifying their palates”

“But perhaps there may be a political reason for it: in finding one of a truly benevolent disposition, men may very reasonably suppose they have found a treasure, and be desirous of keeping it, like all other good things, to themselves. Hence they may imagine, that to trumpet forth the praises of such a person, would, in the vulgar phrase, be crying Roast-meat, and calling in partakers of what they intend to appl solely to their own use. If this reason does not satisfy the reader, I know no other means of accounting for the little respect which I have commonly seen paid to a character which really does great honour to human nature, and is productive of the highest good to society.”

“All Nature wears one universal grin.”

“Things may be fitting to be done, which are not fitting to be boasted of; for by the perverse judgment of the world, that often becomes the subject of censure, which is, in truth, not only innocent but laudable. What can be more innocent than the indulgence of a natural appetite? Or what more laudable than the propagation of our species?”

“No one hath seen beauty in its highest lustre who hath never seen it in distress.”

“For I hope my Friends will pardon me, when I declare, I know none of them without a Fault; and I should be sorry if I could imagine, I had any Friend who could not see mine. Forgiveness, of this Kind, we give and demand in Turn.”

“A crime, which, though perhaps not considered by law as the highest, is in truth and in fact, the blackest sin, which can contaminate the hands, or pollute the soul of man.”

“Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation.”

“We must eat to live and live to eat.”

“I have found it; I have discovered the cause of all the misfortunes which befell him. A public school, Joseph, was the cause of all the calamaties which he afterwards suffered. Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.”

“To whom nothing is given, of him can nothing be required.”

“He was, indeed, in a condition, in which, if reason had interposed, though only to advise, she might have received the answer which one Cleostratus gave many years ago to a silly fellow, who asked him, if he was not ashamed to be drunk? "Are not you," said Cleostratus, "ashamed to admonish a drunken man?" — To say the truth, in a court of justice drunkenness must not be an excuse, yet in a court of conscience it is greatly so.”

“Oh, the roast beef of England,
And old England's roast beef!”

“Oons, sir! do you say that I am drunk? I say, sir, that I am as sober as a judge.”

“One fool at least in every married couple.”

“This story will not go down.”

“Can any man have a higher notion of the rule of right and the eternal fitness of things?”

“Custom may lead a man into many errors; but it justifies none.”

“The same animal which hath the honour to have some part of his flesh eaten at the table of a duke, may perhaps be degraded in another part, and some of his limbs gibbeted, as it were, in the vilest stall in town.”

“When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.”

“…the excellence of the mental entertainment consists less in the subject than in the author's skill in well dressing it up.”

“Depend on me; never fear your enemies. I'll warrant we make more noise than they.”

“Thy modesty's a candle to thy merit.”

“He in a few minutes ravished this fair creature, or at least would have ravished her, if she had not, by a timely compliance, prevented him.”

“There is not in the universe a more ridiculous, nor more contemptible animal, than a proud clergyman.”

“When widows exclaim loudly against second marriages, I would always lay a wager that the man, if not the wedding day, is absolutely fixed on.”

“Lo, when two dogs are fighting in the streets,
With a third dog one of the two dogs meets;
With angry teeth he bites him to the bone,
And this dog smarts for what that dog has done.”

“His designs were strictly honorable, as the phrase is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage.”

“Sir, money, money, the most charming of all things; money, which will say more in one moment than the most elegant lover can in years. Perhaps you will say a man is not young; I answer he is rich. He is not genteel, handsome, witty, brave, good-humoured, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich — that one word contradicts everything you can say against him.”

“For it is very hard, my lord," said a convicted felon at the bar to the late excellent judge Burnet, "to hang a poor man for stealing a horse." "You are not to be hanged sir," answered my ever-honored and beloved friend, "for stealing a horse, but you are to be hanged that horses may not be stolen.”

“Covent Garden Journal (11 January 1752)”
Illustrious predecessors.

“Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to heaven.”

“Penny saved is a penny got.”

“To speak a bold truth, I am, after much mature deliberation, inclined to suspect that the public voice hath, in all ages, done much injustice to Fortune, and hath convicted her of many facts in which she had not the least concern.”

“Distinction without a difference.”

“Much may be said on both sides.”

“Hairbreadth missings of happiness look like the insults of Fortune.”

“Life may as properly be called an art as any other.”

“To sun myself in Huncamunca's eyes.”

“Reader, I think proper, before we proceed any farther together, to acquaint thee that I intend to digress, through this whole history, as often as I see occasion, of which I am myself a better judge than any pitiful critic…”

“The dusky night rides down the sky,
And ushers in the morn;
The hounds all join in glorious cry,
The huntsman winds his horn,
And a-hunting we will go.”

“It is a trite but true observation, that examples work more forcibly on the mind than precepts.”

“It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying which is terrible.”

“When I'm not thanked at all, I'm thanked enough;
I've done my duty, and I've done no more.”

“A lover, when he is admitted to cards, ought to be solemnly silent, and observe the motions of his mistress. He must laugh when she laughs, sigh when she sighs. In short, he should be the shadow of her mind. A lady, in the presence of her lover, should never want a looking-glass; as a beau, in the presence of his looking-glass, never wants a mistress.”

“Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business.
Today it is our pleasure to be drunk;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.”

“Enough is equal to a feast.”

“Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.”

“Every physician almost hath his favorite disease.”

“These are called the pious frauds of friendship.”

“…for nothing can be more reasonable, than that slaves and flatterers should exact the same taxes on all below them, which they themselves pay to all above them.”

“Amiable weakness.”

“The dignity of history.”

“Republic of letters.”

“For so extravagant was the affection of that fond parent, that, provided his child would but consent to be miserable with the husband he chose, he cared not at what price he purchased him.”